I am considering Carrara 8.5 Pro; it comes with M5 and V5...not M6 and V6...

What to do here...might I be better served to try to get the version 6's sooner rather than later? If so, how to do this economically?

Well, there is no M6, to begin with. And C8.5 Pro comes with the M5/V5 Pro packages, which is a substantial amount of product, if you don't already have them; plus, there's nothing obsolete about Genesis/M5/V5, according to DAZ, V6 is just a newer path.

Aaah, thank you for the correction about M6...I had just made an assumption.

Getting closer to a decision here and I think I'm going to jump on 8.5 Pro (with V5/M5 Pro packages) and I already have G2 Female Starter Essentials from DAZ Studio 4 and I think I may pick up the Portrait Studio pack too since it's on sale.